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“Signed transfers for payments to people and companies that don’t exist. All legitimate things for the embassy to have bought, except that they didn’t.”
“But it’s your name on the receipts, or whatever they are?”
“Yes, and it looks like my signature, it just isn’t.”
“Going on for how long?” Daniel asked.
“Several years. But I didn’t do it, Mr. Pitt! I don’t have a lot of money. I may have a name reminiscent of a hero from history but I’m from a very ordinary family. My father died a long time ago. He was a good man, but not exceptional.” His voice cracked a little, and he mastered it with difficulty, pretending it was a cough rather than emotion. “Thank God my mother has gone, too. She…” Whatever he had been going to say, he changed his mind. “I have enough money, but not a lot,” he repeated, and then he shrugged very slightly. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t account for one hundred pounds. I play cards for pleasure, but I don’t gamble. It always seemed like a waste of time. I can’t afford to lose, and I can’t win unless someone else loses. I would say look at my purchases, but I don’t know what they will show. There must be something there that I don’t know about, and can’t explain.”
Daniel was struggling for something to say. Either Sidney was telling the truth, or he was an extraordinarily good liar. Was he a good diplomat? Was he practiced at saying things he didn’t mean, being polite to people he disliked, or even despised? Making excuses? Representing his country, whether he thought it was right or wrong? Who had said patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel? Patriotic lies were honorable, the loyal thing to say, over and over again, until you believed them.
Wasn’t that what lawyers did? Defend the client until the bitter end, as long as he didn’t actually admit his guilt to you and then lie on the witness stand?
“You didn’t do it?” he said.
“No, I didn’t,” Sidney replied.
“Have you any idea who did?”
“No. Do you think I haven’t racked my brain?”
“Or why?”
“That either. Is this against me, or did I just happen to be standing in the wrong place? Was it really a matter of ‘anyone will do’?”
Daniel frowned. “One hundred pounds doesn’t seem enough money over which to blame someone else. Wouldn’t buy you a house…well, not much of one.”
“It might be a way out of debt, if that’s what you owed,” Sidney suggested.
Daniel hesitated. This seemed the ideal time to bring in Rebecca Thorwood. There would never be a better one. “Or is it really about something else altogether?” he said quietly.
Sidney drew in his breath as if to ask what; then there was a sudden understanding in his face. “How do you know about that? You mean the Thorwood accusation in Washington? I didn’t do it! But you think someone is trying to get revenge on me for that? Won’t work. This money was taken while I was in Washington, before that event happened.”
“If it was taken,” Daniel said, watching Sidney’s face, his eyes, the tiny muscles in his jaw. He did not see guilt nor an actor planning out his reaction.
“I don’t understand,” Sidney replied. “If somebody thought I did that, and it seems as if the whole of Washington does, how would they backdate the embezzlement to imprison me now?”
“I don’t know.” Daniel was honest. “But how could they do it anyway? Make it look as if you had taken the money?”
The little color there was drained out of Sidney’s face. He pushed his hair back again, as if the manacles were not there. “I don’t know what to do. It’s coming at me from all sides. I wouldn’t believe me, if I were you. Tobias Thorwood swears he saw me coming out of his daughter’s bedroom after assaulting her and stealing a diamond pendant. He couldn’t have, because I wasn’t there. I didn’t attack Rebecca. Actually, I rather liked her. I thought she was…different. Individual. A bit young, perhaps, but…” He stopped. “I wasn’t there!” he repeated hopelessly. “I didn’t take the diamond. I don’t have it, and I didn’t sell it or give it away or lose it. But half of Washington was baying for my blood because Thorwood swore I did. He’s an important man. Very wealthy, from an old family, as Washington goes. Ridiculous, isn’t it? The Sidneys go back long before Queen Elizabeth. It’s a hell of a name to live up to. I’ve done just about the worst job possible. I’m glad my mother’s dead. I never thought I’d say that…” He choked to a stop.
There were a few moments of silence.
In spite of his confusion and his loyalty to Patrick and Jemima, Daniel felt a surge of pity for this man, only a little more than his own age. “I’ve got a father who has done brilliantly,” he said, following what Sidney had said about his own name. “They tease me at the office and call me Pitt the Younger, who, in case you have forgotten, was British Prime Minister before he was my age. Went up to Cambridge at fourteen, entered Parliament at twenty-two, was Prime Minister by twenty-four! And I’m twenty-five already, and what have I done?”
Sidney smiled. It was crooked and rueful, but it held a brief moment of understanding.
“Why did you use diplomatic immunity to run away?” Daniel returned to the subject. “That makes you look guilty. Wouldn’t the embassy stand behind you and get a decent lawyer? If you didn’t do it, they might even find proof of that.”
Sidney looked down at the scarred table. “I can see that now. But ‘might have’ isn’t much assurance when they are howling for you to be flogged. The thing grew legs. It started out that I thought the best thing I could do for myself and for the embassy was to get out and hope the whole story died down. Tobias Thorwood might change his mind about the identification and maybe Rebecca would finally say that she was mistaken, and it wasn’t me.”
“Did she say it was you?”
“They say she did, but maybe it was only her father. Hardly matters now: I did run away. My career is ruined. The Foreign Office wouldn’t even look at me to sweep the floors now. I don’t expect any government office would.”
“Even if you were found not guilty?” Daniel asked.
“Not guilty of what? Embezzlement? That’s possible. But I still ran away from Washington, instead of facing the charge of assault like a man.”
